Player Profile

John Juanda - The Doctor Is In

John Juanda - The Doctor Is In

Fact File

Age: 35

Born: Indonesia

Resides: Marina del Rey, CA

Featured in: Episode 1

Key stats: Three World Series of Poker bracelets

Did you know?: JJ was the 2002 Tournament Player of the Year and a damn good door-to-door bible salesman

Also in Episode: Erick Lindgren, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Jose Canseco, Cheryl Hines

Fact File

"Don't gamble," was the advice John Juanda’s father gave him, which is why John plans to be a doctor someday. But, in the meantime...

John played his first poker game on the flight from his native Indonesia to attend Oklahoma State. His first hand was a royal flush. He couldn’t believe his luck - literally. Unlike most people, who wouldn’t question fate smiling on them, John was skeptical. He concluded that getting a royal flush off the bat was a mathematical improbability. Turns out, he was right. His friend had stacked the deck. His poker education was less than a few minutes old, but John’s instinct to calculate the odds rather than trusting in luck would be a cornerstone of his game.

John had several successful careers before turning the poker table into his office. He was a marketing executive, stock trader, and door-to-door bible salesman. In 1997, he entered 13 tournaments near his home in Los Angeles. He made the final table in all of them, including two first places and five seconds. Even with his father’s strict admonition, John decided he couldn’t ignore those results or his talent.

John is known in poker circles for being easy-going, modest and big-hearted. Of course, those descriptions bear no resemblance to the way John plays poker. At the table, he’ll do everything he can to rob a player of all his chips. After all, it’s a business. And John’s business has been very good, generating three WSOP championship bracelets and more than $6 million in winnings.

In Poker Equalizer’s first round, John will face one of his best friends, Daniel Negreanu. When Negreanu’s partying was fueling a personal and professional tailspin, John didn’t pull any punches. He constantly butted heads with Negreanu until his friend got his life back on track. That’s the way John rolls. Someday he hopes to help people on a larger scale by leaving the game and becoming a doctor. His dream is to return to Indonesia and help the country’s poor. It means a significant change in his life, but it’s a gamble he’s willing to take.